


sometimes, life imitates art

by mariatyler



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-30
Updated: 2013-09-30
Packaged: 2017-12-28 01:33:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariatyler/pseuds/mariatyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>RPF, David and Billie rehearse the New Earth kiss at his flat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	sometimes, life imitates art

“So...” begins Billie, stretching her arms up. David utterly refuses to let his gaze slip to the small slither of bare stomach that has been exposed by her movements, and –

Ah. Oh dear, too late.

But she really does have a magnificent abdomen.

She coughs pointedly, in that way people do when they’ve said something and you’ve not quite heard because you’ve been busy staring at them inappropriately.

“Sorry, what?” he says.

“I said, I think we should rehearse the kissing scene now,” she tells him seriously, urging herself to keep a straight face.

His jaw drops. That’s what he missed? How the hell did he not hear that? That’s the thing he’s been waiting for her to say all bloody night.

Her stomach is very distracting.

He accidentally tells her this.

“Pardon?” she laughs.

He backpedals. “Erm. Okay. No. I mean. Right. Just...pretend I didn’t say that.”

She glances down at herself and shifts her top back into place, still giggling.

He tries not to show his disappointment. After all, she did mention kissing just now, so...the evening could still be saved. Providing she still wants to do that, of course. As long as she doesn’t think he’s some sort of pervert, leering over his best mate like that.

He clears his throat. “Right, sorry. What were you saying? You want to rehearse the kiss scene? Yes, well...yes. I think that’s a...er. A very...excellent idea.” He smiles, hoping he doesn’t look too flustered at the notion.

She grins back at him wickedly, in that mischievous way that only Billie – and, consequently, Rose – can do. Tongue between teeth, and taunting him every day of his and the Doctor’s life.

“Soooo...” he drawls. His hand is tapping his script against his thigh nervously. “Shall we...stand up and act it all out, or...?”

Billie jumps up. “Yeah, I think that’d be useful.”

Useful, he thinks to himself. Yes. Yes, kissing Billie right now will be very useful. For their job. For their acting.

Not, definitely not, for remembering when she’s gone home and he’s on his own and there’s no one here to realise that he’s wanted to kiss her since the day he met her. He’ll probably do a victory dance all the way to his cold shower. He’s sad like that.

He watches her as she glances back over the script quickly and, confident she’s learnt the lines, chucks it onto the sofa. She’s ready then. Okay. Here goes.

He stands up, placing his own script neatly on the coffee table. He thinks she might be laughing to herself about his neatness, but he doesn’t make a defensive remark. He’s too distracted.

He’s too...

Nervous.

It’s odd, this. He’s not had to be nervous around a woman for a while. Not whilst acting.He’s always nervous in real life, of course, when it’s him and some woman he wants to impress but probably won’t. But acting, in a show, with a fellow actor...he’s not usually nervous. All that pretend snogging and sex in Casanova saw the end to that.

But, Billie - she’s. Well. She’s different.

There are no cameras around filming their every move, and yet, they will be playing the Doctor and Rose when they kiss in a minute. Not David and Billie. And yet...He knows he’ll be pretending this is real life. Which is why he’s so damn nervous.

“Bills...”

“I can’t Adam and Eve it,” she says.

David frowns. What’s she going on about?

“David? Your line,” she prompts.

OH! Oh, right. She’s Rose now. Well, Cassandra-Rose. Okay.

Blimey.

“Right, sorry. Start over?”

“Sure,” she smiles. “I can’t Adam and Eve it...”

“What- what’s with the voice?” he says, reciting the Doctor’s lines.

“Oh, I dunno...” she drawls sexily. “Just larking about. New Earth...new me...”

David glances down to her chest. Bugger. She hasn’t followed the script’s directions 100% correctly. She’s supposed to have unbuttoned her shirt a bit to be Cassandra-Rose. Oh well.

“Well, I can talk. New new Doctor!” he grins.

“Mmm, aren’t you just,” she says, biting her lip.

David swallows thickly. Here it comes...

Billie suddenly grabs his face in her hands and kisses him firmly on the lips.

And really, he should’ve been prepared; he knows it’s going to happen, the Doctor doesn’t. And yet, he’s just as tousled and gobsmacked as he’s got to pretend to be, when she pulls back.

She licks her lips and he stifles a groan.

“Well. There we go, easy-peasy,” she says. “You’ve got that dazed and confused look down perfect.”

“Thanks,” he replies meekly.

“Noticed you didn’t kiss me back,” she mumbles then, as she flops back down on the sofa.

David frowns, sitting down next to her. If their legs brush together because they’re so close then that’s completely not his intention. “Well. Well, I’m sure, if it was a longer kiss, then the Doctor would recover from his shock enough to do so, but...well. Rose – Cassandra – pulls away too soon.”

“Do you think he can tell?” she asks, grabbing her bottle of beer from the table and taking a long swig.

“Tell what?” David replies, his eyes following her every movement.

“Tell that it’s not really Rose?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. It’s a pretty quick kiss. Anyway, how would he know what Rose kisses like? He kissed her on the Gamestation but she didn’t kiss him back as such. And it’s still Rose’s lips and mouth; would it be any different?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t grab him so forcefully like that.” She sighs wistfully. “Their first kiss would be totally different to how Cassandra launches herself at him,” she rationalises, leaning into him in that way that makes him think for a moment maybe she wants to cuddle him, before he remembers this is Billie and she’s affectionate with everyone. He wraps his arm around her shoulders anyway, and is pleased when she snuggles herself into his side like she’s meant to be there.

David raises an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. They’d be acting all silly and laughing or something and then they’d just sort of...fall into a kiss by accident. It’d be sweet and romantic and - ” she cuts herself off, noticing David’s wide smile. “You think I’m over-analysing this.”

“No, no, please – carry on. It’s really very cute, the way you’re imagining them getting together. Of course, realistically, they don’t do that sort of thing - ”

Billie bursts out laughing. “Oh, David!”

“What?!” he demands.

“You’re such a cute little boy! So naive. Blimey.”

“What?! The Doctor doesn’t do that...”

“Rubbish. Remove yourself from your inner fan-boy for a moment and think about it carefully.” She turns in his arms slightly and looks up at him.

She’s so close – her lips are right bloody there, barely four inches in front of his – he could lean forward just a little and kiss her. But he can’t, because she’s Billie, his best friend, and they do not do that.

Much like how the Doctor doesn’t shag. End of.

“No, don’t get all defensive,” she says, when he’s about to protest. “She’s not like all the rest of his companions, yeah? He’s fallen in love with her. I don’t care if he’s nine-hundred years old and an alien, he’s still going to want to kiss her.”

“Yes, he wants to,” agrees David. “Of course he wants to. This is probably one of the first times he’s been faced with the difficulty of fancying and loving the person he’s travelling with. But he won’t do anything about it.”

“But why shouldn’t he?” she argues. “Seriously, give me one good reason he shouldn’t just forget the rules for her and kiss her.”

David swallows thickly, lifting a hand to stroke a wayward strand of her hair from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear tenderly. “Because he’ll lose her.”

Billie stares up at him unblinkingly. “That’s a stupid reason,” she murmurs quietly.

“No it isn’t!” he defends. “One day, she’ll leave him. Decide she’s had enough. Move onto something new without him.”

And leave me to face series three with someone else, he thinks to himself bitterly.

“You mean, get tragically torn away into a parallel universe?” she corrects, the pair of them having been let in on Russell’s secret ending for her last episode.

“That’s what I said,” he sniffs nonchalantly.

“Well, however it ends...” Billie says. “Why waste the time they’ve got left? Might as well make the most of the time they have got together. It’ll only be regrets and moping around if they don’t. They could have months of fun.”

“They will.”

“They could have months of sexy fun,” Billie amends.

David shrugs. “It’s more sweet and romantic that they don’t, though. Will-they, won’t-they and all that. Takes all the anticipation out of it if they jump into bed.”

“Well, obviously yeah – for the viewer. But I’m not talking about what we see on screen – of course they aren’t going to show them getting it on, it’s a family show! I just mean...well, don’t you ever think about what they get up to after each adventure?”

David starts to smile. “Bill...you do know the difference between fantasy and reality, yeah? If it’s not written down by Russell or his minions, then it doesn’t exist - ”

She pokes her tongue out at him in childish frustration. “Whatever,” she huffs, turning her head away from him. “You’re so obsessed with the ‘Whoniverse’ that I thought you might understand what I mean, that’s all.”

He playfully grabs her chin to guide her to look back at him. “I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you, I promise. I just never knew you gave this much thought to it.”

“Rose isn’t just some character I’m playing. This isn’t just a job that I’m doing to make ends meet. It matters to me. She matters to me. They matter to me.” She blushes then, embarrassed under his intense gaze. “You know?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know,” he says softly, his thumb stroking her cheek. He realises what he’s doing and drops his hand abruptly, letting it fall between them on the sofa. Her own hand latches onto it immediately, and he watches as she links their fingers together.

“I know this is probably sounding really weird,” she laughs nervously. “I just...I want them to be happy, yeah? I like to think that they cuddle up in the library together reading and drinking tea and watching films, after a good hard day’s work saving the universe. I like to think that maybe one evening, maybe after episode 7 or so, they end up kissing, just how I said. And then they just...fall into a relationship. They love each other, they’re both really hot – why not?” she laughs.

He makes a very pleased sound. “Ah, Billie the Piper thinks I’m hot. My life is complete!” he exclaims theatrically.

She meets his twinkling eyes, laughing with him. “Yeah, see what I did there? Worked it into a bit long speech, hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

“Or hoping I would,” he grins.

“Meh, maybe,” she says non-commitally.

They giggle together for a few moments, and then Billie almost stops his heart again.

“So, shall we take it from the top?”

“Yeah!” he replies instantly. “Yeah, sure. From the very beginning?”

“Nah, just the beginning of this scene,” she says.

“Oh, okay.”

Yes, yes, YES.

“Up you get, then,” she tells him, pulling him up with her.

They manoeuvre back into their earlier positions and repeat the dialogue word for word.

And then it gets to that point again. That glorious moment –

“Mmm, aren’t you just,” she says, her voice even naughtier than the first time she said it.

And then she grabs hold of him and kisses him, just like before.

Except - it’s nothing like before.

Thing is, see...he accidentally kisses her back, this time. He knows, rationally, that he’s not supposed to. It’s not in the script, as such, but he knows he’s supposed to stand there while she attacks him with her gorgeous lips and let it happen too quickly for him to respond.

Really, though, it’s her fault.

She lingers. He swears she does. Her lips linger on his and then he exerts a bit more force and then he’s kissing her, too, and then her tongue comes into play, so he naturally follows suit, and within moments their innocent little rehearsal peck – if one could really call it that to begin with – transforms into a rather passionate snog.

His hands shoot to her waist, dragging her hips to meet his. Hers are still in his hair, but now tugging more forcefully. It’s as if they’re trying to absorb each other and it’s brilliant.

And then she’s pushing him backwards, slowly but surely, aiming for the sofa; and he forgets the layout of his own bloody flat, and so they end up crashing onto the coffee table, collapsing it beneath their weight and making their bottles of beer fly to the floor with them.

Billie tears her lips away in surprise at their new position – her, sprawled across her best mate; him, with his beautiful, sexy best mate sprawled on top of him – amidst broken wood and spilt alcohol.

She starts to laugh, uncontrollably, and the feel of it against his chest makes laughter rumble up within him, too.

She’s got tears in her eyes, she’s giggling so much, but she tries to speak, “We’re...haha! We’re so...”

“Ridiculous?” he pre-empts, watching her hysterical, wonderful cackles above him.

“Yeah! God, don’t tell anyone we were this daft. Ever. Okay?”

“Okay,” he vows solemnly, lips twitching.

She starts to recover her composure, and rolls off him. Their backs firmly on the floor, they both turn their heads at the same time to regard one another.

“I’m sorry I made us break your coffee table,” Billie murmurs, when their giggles have subsided and they’re back to contemplating each other intensely.

“I really don’t care about the coffee table. It’s an ugly coffee table. Rather, it was an ugly coffee table. Now it’s altogether more - ”

Billie cuts him off by pressing her lips to his again; but only briefly. “Sorry. Always wondered what that would be like.”

“What what would be like?” he asks, baffled and breathless.

“Interrupting you with a kiss. It’s something I’m sure Rose’ll have to do to stop that Doctor of hers rambling on all day,” she smiles.

David smiles back. “Do you know what I’ve always wondered?”

She arches an eyebrow. “No, what?”

He turns onto his side, and his hand hovers over her stomach for a moment. She looks down at it questioningly. He takes that as some sort of permission, and gently lifts the hem of her top up slightly, exposing her stomach. He glances back at her, checking this is all right. She’s staring at him unblinkingly, no form of refusal or protest on her lips, so he continues, letting his fingertip draw a slow but steady pattern on her skin.

Billie shivers, and whispers, “What’re you doing?”

“I’m refuting popular belief that I am a Doctor Who geek by drawing a Gallifreyan symbol on your stomach,” he tells her, his lips curving into an ironic smile.

“And why’re you doing that?” she giggles, unwilling to condemn him for such a thing because it feels nice. Very, very nice.

“Because I’ve always wondered what it would be like.”

“To draw something in the Doctor’s language on my skin with your fingertip?”

“Yes,” he answers, continuing with his quest. Billie shivers again, and he smiles. “I wanted to see if you’d do that.”

“Shiver at your touch?” she smiles.

“Yeah.”

“Always.”

He glances at her in surprise. “Billie, I...”

She slides her hand into his hair, ruffling it softly. “I hoped this would happen.”

“What’s that?” he murmurs.

“Us,” she answers, and she lets that word hang deliciously in the air for a moment for him to process. “Us, falling into a relationship.”

His heart speeds up so fast that he almost thinks, for a brief, deluded, surely crazy moment, that he has two. “Is that what’s happening now?”

“One snog and you’re touching me up; yeah, we’re moving pretty fast,” she laughs.

“I’m not ‘touching you up,’” he denies vehemently. “I’m...revering your belly. It’s really quite magnificent.” He leans closer, and contemplates kissing it.

“Still, I’ve fancied you for a while, so I’m pretending you are.”

His eyes almost pop out of his head. “You’ve what?”

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t you realise how sexy you were as Casanova? I mean, I know I told you that Mum fancied the pants off you after that, but really, I was just as enamoured.”

“Really?” he squeaks, sounding very pleased with this new information. “Ah, Miss Piper. Now my life is definitely complete.”

“No it isn’t,” she disagrees gently.

“No?” he swallows thickly.

“Nope.” She trails her hand down his chest.

“Oh. Okay.”

“David...” She looks up at him between her eyelashes. He’s instantly hypnotised.

“Yeah?”

“We’ve got plenty of episodes left to shoot, you know. I’m not leaving yet. Not for months and months.”

He glances away. “Yeah. I know.”

“Are you angry with me for deciding to leave?”

Yes.

“No, of course not,” he answers.

“Liar,” she murmurs. “I’m sorry. I just...wanna do some other things, too.”

“I thought playing Rose was more than just a job,” he mutters, flopping onto his back and staring up at the ceiling.

“It is. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my whole life, you know that. But if I stay too long, I won’t want to leave.”

“That’s really not a problem.”

“It is. The audience will get bored of me.”

“They’ll be crying uncontrollably in that finale, you know.”

“Well, we will. I dunno about the rest of the country.”

David shakes his head slightly. “They love you.” He takes a deep breath in and almost tells her that he does, too, but she speaks before he can.

“Anyway, my point is, don’t count down the days. There’s so much time left for us to have fun with it all. And anyway, even when I’ve left, it doesn’t mean we have to stop hanging out. I mean, I know we won’t see each other pretty much constantly like we do now, but I want you to know that in any moment we’ve both got free, I’d want to spend it with you.”

His head snapped around to face her again. “You mean that?”

She averts her eyes, looking like she’s embarrassed she’s let that slip. “Yeah,” she says, barely audible.

“I’m sorry I’ve been such an arse about it,” David apologises quietly. “I just know I’m going to miss you, that’s all. We’ve only had just over a month’s filming together, but...well. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being silly, but it...it wouldn’t be the same without you.”

She smiles gently. “You’ll get used to the new girl soon enough.”

He doesn’t think so, but he smiles anyway. “Like you’ve got used to the new boy, right?”

“Exactly. I miss Chris, but you’re…” she smiles wistfully.

David grins. “So what you’re saying is, I’m your Doctor?”

Billie rolls her eyes, and she smirks at him, “Nah. You never forget your first. What I’m saying is, you’ll do.”

“Well, thanks,” he chuckles.

“And I think...” she trails off, pursing her lips together to stop herself continuing.

“You think what?” he prompts, his breathing quickening in anticipation.

She leans over and kisses him again. When he thinks she’s about to pull back, he stops her, his hands sliding to her hips to lift her until she’s seated firmly astride his lap, her knees on the floor either side of him.

“Billie,” he whispers against her neck, when she breaks the kiss after a few minutes, as she’s panting softly next to his ear.

“Can we...I want...” she murmurs back, tangling her hands in his hair as she leans back to look at him.

His eyes flutter closed in pleasure as she runs her fingers across his scalp, down to the nape of his neck, and back again. She kisses the corner of his mouth and scoots her body closer to his, squeezing his hips slightly with her legs. His breath hitches and she moves again, creating a delicious little burst of friction between them. He captures her mouth again so that he can moan into it, and her hands leave his hair to fiddle with his shirt buttons.

He freezes when she pops the first one undone.

He’s...she’s...they’re...

She wants to have sex with him. Billie Piper, the girl he’s been working with – for, well, such a short space of time, when you think about it - but who he’s wanted from the moment she first laughed at him,that first day he met her. Well, no, that’s not quite true. He thinks he’s maybe wanted her since he first saw her playing companion to the role he’s always wanted to play and now does.

And she wants him.

He’s even more terrified, now.

She’s sensed his hesitation, because her fingers stop what they’re doing and so does her tongue. “David?” she whispers, her voice wavering.

He thinks she thinks he’s having second thoughts. He isn’t. He still wants this more than anything. He’s just a little...shell-shocked that she wants it too.

He hears her exhale roughly, and feels her start to shift off of him. His hands tighten their grip on her hips and bring her right back down again. Her expression of confusion and hurt tugs at his heart. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he murmurs.

“Yes,” she assures him firmly. “Are you?”

“Yes.”

“Then why’d you stop?” she asks.

He lets out a shaky laugh. “I’m just...I can’t believe my luck, really.”

He’s utterly surprised when she stares at him coolly, before shoving his hands off her and standing up.

“What? Bill – what? Where are you going?” he asks her desperately as she picks up her script and her bag, heading for the door. He jumps up, and sprints in front of her, blocking her way. “What did I say?”

There are tears in her eyes and he wants nothing more than to hold her and tell her everything’s going to be fine. But he doesn’t know what’s wrong – doesn’t know what he’s done – so he can’t.

She bites her lip and shifts restlessly where she stands. “If this is just a – a - ” she can’t bring herself to continue, and she stares at the floor, blinking quickly.

“A what?” he urges, completely confused.

“If this is just a shag to you, a one-time thing, a notch on your bedpost, then I...I dunno if I can - ”

He stares at her, his mouth hanging open in shock. “Billie...”

She looks back at him. “You probably think I’m being stupid, or moving too fast or whatever, but David, I think...I think I want us to...to be...” she trails off, huffing at herself in frustration.

He steps forward, closing all distance between them, and cups her face in his hands. He stares at her silently for a moment, as if searching her eyes, then dips his head. He doesn’t kiss her yet, though; he simply whispers across her lips, “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

And then he does kiss her, to cut off whatever reply she could possibly have to that. She gasps into his mouth as she registers what he’s just said, her heart stuttering, and kisses him back just as passionately. He turns them around, pushing her gently into the wall as his lips leave hers to travel down her neck, across her collar bone. She licks his earlobe in retaliation and he slumps against her for a moment, making her giggle. Her hands drop what they’re holding and wander back to his shirt and she unbuttons it fully, before shoving it off his shoulders. She trails her fingers down his bare chest and he shivers.

“You shiver under my touch, too,” she grins.

“Always,” he mumbles into her breastbone, as he kisses her through the fabric. He tugs at the hem of her top. “Can we remove this, please? It’s entirely inhibiting my mission.”

She giggles some more and lifts her arms up, letting him pull her top over her head. He chucks it behind him to meet his shirt on the floor.

“Not so neat and tidy now, are we?” she teases him.

“I think you saw to that, breaking my coffee table.”

“Did you a favour, though, right? It was very ugly.”

“Mmm,” he agrees. “You, on the other hand...” He slides her bra straps down her shoulders. After fiddling for a few moments, he finally undoes the clasp, and her bra falls to the floor. “...are the most gorgeous thing in the universe.”

She tries to swallow the lump in her throat his words have invoked. He senses it, somehow – the way she’s still unsure of compliments, the way she’s still not lost that low self-confidence with regards to her body, even after all these years.

“Bill,” he says softly, looking deep into her eyes. “You are so beautiful. Believe me. Please believe me.”

She bites her lip – not in her teasing way, but in that way she does when she’s trying not to cry. He strokes her cheeks tenderly with the pads of his thumbs.

“Don’t let anyone ever say you’re not perfect just the way you are, Billie,” he continues. “Because you are.” He kisses her gently.

“Well that’s not quite true,” she murmurs, a tear falling onto her cheek. “I’ve - ”

She’s about to list all her imperfections to him, but he stops her with a sharp look, wiping her tear away.

“To me, you are,” he tells her sincerely. He presses closer to her, whispering in her ear. “I love everything about you, Billie.” His hands ghost over her ribcage, and he feels her chest against his, heaving in air quickly at his words. Her feels her heart beating fast, and knows his is the same. “Everything.”

He hears her take in a deep breath, as if summoning her courage.

And then she replies, and he knows he wants her forever.

“I love you, too,” she whispers, her voice cracking with emotion. “I don’t care if it’s happening too fast – it’s real, and I feel it, David. It’s different to anything I’ve ever felt before. Every minute I spend with you, I...” she trails off breathlessly, unable to put her feelings into words.

“Me too,” he murmurs back reassuringly, pressing soft kisses to her jaw line. “Let’s go to bed.”

She giggles, looping her arms around his neck. “Best idea you’ve ever had.”

“I think so too,” he chuckles, lifting her into his arms. She squeals in surprise, and tightens her grip on him so that she doesn’t fall out of his embrace. “Don’t look so dismayed,” he grins. “I’m very strong, you know, despite my weedy looks.”

“You’re not weedy,” she disagrees quietly. “You’re beautiful.”

He scoffs.

“I mean it,” she tells him definitively. “If I’ve got to take compliments from you, you’ve got to from me. And let me tell you this,” she adds, as he enters his room and places her gently on his bed. “I’m besotted with your chest.”

He grins. “Likewise.”

“And...I’d really like you to take your trousers off. Right. Now,” she requests.

He chuckles. “Likewise.”

They smile at each other for a second without moving, and the mischief creeping into both their expressions turns it into a challenge. “First one to be out of their jeans wins a special prize,” she giggles, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.

He licks his lips and lets her win.

::

They curl up together afterwards in the middle of his bed, lazily caressing each other as they wait for sleep to overcome them.

“I still don’t think they shag on the TARDIS, Bill,” he says randomly, as if it’s a thought he’s been wanting to voice for a while but thought it irrelevant for most of the time up until now. “They must go somewhere else for that. I mean, she’s a sentient time-and-spaceship, she wouldn’t want two horny - ”

“David?” she says sweetly. He meets her gaze, smiling crookedly. “Shut up, yeah?”

He squints at her playfully. “Make me.”

She does, and sleeping gets put off for another hour or two.


End file.
